The Palestinian National Covenant -
Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

The text is the English version published officially by the PLO,
unabridged and unedited
- where words in the original Arabic are important, the Arabic word has been inserted in
parentheses.

Resolutions of the Palestine National Council, July 1-17, 1968

Text of the Charter

Article 1: Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an
indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of
the Arab nation.

Article 2: Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an
indivisible territorial unit.

Article 3: The Palestinian Arab people possess the legal right to their homeland and
have the right to determine their destiny after achieving the liberation of their country
in accordance with their wishes and entirely of their own accord and will.

Article 4: The Palestinian identity is a genuine, essential, and inherent
characteristic; it is transmitted from parents to children. The Zionist occupation and the
dispersal of the Palestinian Arab people, through the disasters which befell them, do not
make them lose their Palestinian identity and their membership in the Palestinian
community, nor do they negate them.

Article 5: The Palestinians are those Arab nationals who, until 1947, normally resided
in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or have stayed there. Anyone
born, after that date, of a Palestinian father - whether inside Palestine or outside it -
is also a Palestinian.

Article 6: The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the
Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.

Article 7: That there is a Palestinian community and that it has material, spiritual,
and historical connection with Palestine are indisputable facts. It is a national duty to
bring up individual Palestinians in an Arab revolutionary manner. All means of information
and education must be adopted in order to acquaint the Palestinian with his country in the
most profound manner, both spiritual and material, that is possible. He must be prepared
for the armed struggle and ready to sacrifice his wealth and his life in order to win back
his homeland and bring about its liberation.

Article 8: The phase in their history, through which the Palestinian people are now
living, is that of national (watani) struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Thus the
conflicts among the Palestinian national forces are secondary, and should be ended for the
sake of the basic conflict that exists between the forces of Zionism and of imperialism on
the one hand, and the Palestinian Arab people on the other. On this basis the Palestinian
masses, regardless of whether they are residing in the national homeland or in diaspora
(mahajir) constitute - both their organizations and the individuals - one national front
working for the retrieval of Palestine and its liberation through armed struggle.

Article 9: Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. Thus it is the overall
strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute
determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an
armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it. They
also assert their right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to
self-determination and sovereignty over it.

Article 10: Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular
liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of
all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement
in the armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the
national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian people, and
between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure the continuation of
the revolution, its escalation, and victory.

Article 11: The Palestinians will have three mottoes: national (wataniyya) unity,
national (qawmiyya) mobilization, and liberation.

Article 12: The Palestinian people believe in Arab unity. In order to contribute their
share toward the attainment of that objective, however, they must, at the present stage of
their struggle, safeguard their Palestinian identity and develop their consciousness of
that identity, and oppose any plan that may dissolve or impair it.

Article 13: Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary
objectives, the attainment of either of which facilitates the attainment of the other.
Thus, Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine, the liberation of Palestine leads
to Arab unity; and work toward the realization of one objective proceeds side by side with
work toward the realization of the other.

Article 14: The destiny of the Arab nation, and indeed Arab existence itself, depend
upon the destiny of the Palestine cause. From this interdependence springs the Arab
nation's pursuit of, and striving for, the liberation of Palestine. The people of
Palestine play the role of the vanguard in the realization of this sacred (qawmi) goal.

Article 15: The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi)
duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab
homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for
this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of
Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military,
human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian
people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed
Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help,
and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities
that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution,
until they liberate their homeland.

Article 16: The liberation of Palestine, from a spiritual point of view, will provide
the Holy Land with an atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard
the country's religious sanctuaries and guarantee freedom of worship and of visit to all,
without discrimination of race, color, language, or religion. Accordingly, the people of
Palestine look to all spiritual forces in the world for support.

Article 17: The liberation of Palestine, from a human point of view, will restore to
the Palestinian individual his dignity, pride, and freedom. Accordingly the Palestinian
Arab people look forward to the support of all those who believe in the dignity of man and
his freedom in the world.

Article 18: The liberation of Palestine, from an international point of view, is a
defensive action necessitated by the demands of self-defense. Accordingly the Palestinian
people, desirous as they are of the friendship of all people, look to freedom-loving, and
peace-loving states for support in order to restore their legitimate rights in Palestine,
to re-establish peace and security in the country, and to enable its people to exercise
national sovereignty and freedom.

Article 19: The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of
Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary
to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland, and
inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations,
particularly the right to self-determination.

Article 20: The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has
been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of
Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of
what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality.
Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of
the states to which they belong.

Article 21: The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian
revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of
Palestine and reject all proposals aiming at the liquidation of the Palestinian problem,
or its internationalization.

Article 22: Zionism is a political movement organically associated with international
imperialism and antagonistic to all action for liberation and to progressive movements in
the world. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial
in its aims, and fascist in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement,
and geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the Arab
homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and progress.
Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole
world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence
and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian
people look for the support of all the progressive and peaceful forces and urge them all,
irrespective of their affiliations and beliefs, to offer the Palestinian people all aid
and support in their just struggle for the liberation of their homeland.

Article 23: The demand of security and peace, as well as the demand of right and
justice, require all states to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement, to outlaw its
existence, and to ban its operations, in order that friendly relations among peoples may
be preserved, and the loyalty of citizens to their respective homelands safeguarded.

Article 24: The Palestinian people believe in the principles of justice, freedom,
sovereignty, self-determination, human dignity, and in the right of all peoples to
exercise them.

Article 25: For the realization of the goals of this Charter and its principles, the
Palestine Liberation Organization will perform its role in the liberation of Palestine in
accordance with the Constitution of this Organization.

Article 26: The Palestine Liberation Organization, representative of the Palestinian
revolutionary forces, is responsible for the Palestinian Arab people's movement in its
struggle - to retrieve its homeland, liberate and return to it and exercise the right to
self-determination in it - in all military, political, and financial fields and also for
whatever may be required by the Palestine case on the inter-Arab and international levels.

Article 27: The Palestine Liberation Organization shall cooperate with all Arab states,
each according to its potentialities; and will adopt a neutral policy among them in the
light of the requirements of the war of liberation; and on this basis it shall not
interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab state.

Article 28: The Palestinian Arab people assert the genuineness and independence of
their national (wataniyya) revolution and reject all forms of intervention, trusteeship,
and subordination.

Article 29: The Palestinian people possess the fundamental and genuine legal right to
liberate and retrieve their homeland. The Palestinian people determine their attitude
toward all states and forces on the basis of the stands they adopt vis-a-vis to the
Palestinian revolution to fulfill the aims of the Palestinian people.

Article 30: Fighters and carriers of arms in the war of liberation are the nucleus of
the popular army which will be the protective force for the gains of the Palestinian Arab
people.

Article 31: The Organization shall have a flag, an oath of allegiance, and an anthem.
All this shall be decided upon in accordance with a special regulation.

Article 32: Regulations, which shall be known as the Constitution of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization, shall be annexed to this Charter. It will lay down the manner in
which the Organization, and its organs and institutions, shall be constituted; the
respective competence of each; and the requirements of its obligation under the Charter.

Article 33: This Charter shall not be amended save by [vote of] a majority of
two-thirds of the total membership of the National Congress of the Palestine Liberation
Organization [taken] at a special session convened for that purpose.